Chapter 30: Workplace Bullying

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People said I had entered through the back door and taken a position that should have belonged to someone else...

It was all nonsense.

My father-in-law had made the arrangements because I was joining the company.

Without me, the Design Department would not have recruited anyone else.

Cui Lu remained expressionless. “If you want to prove to others that you didn’t get in through the back door, you’ll need more than words. You’ll need ability.”

“Thank you for the reminder.”

Even if she had said nothing, that was exactly what I intended to do.

Cui Lu lowered her head, seemingly unwilling to speak with me any further.

After a while, when she saw that I had not left, she looked up again.

“Is there something else?”

“With your personality, you probably won’t tell anyone else about this, will you?”

Cui Lu gave a derisive laugh. “You sound as though you know me very well.”

“Yes.”

Before I came, I had asked Father Zhou for information about her.

Naturally, the files he gave me did not contain the detailed backgrounds of ordinary employees, but Cui Lu was a department supervisor.

She was an extremely strict person.

Her heart held only work. She hated socializing and entertaining, and she disliked scheming above all else.

Under her management, the Design Department was unusually free of office politics.

That was also why people were ostracizing me.

So even if she was unhappy about my being parachuted in, she would not tell the employees without reason. Doing so would only provoke conflict.

There was someone else behind this entire scheme.

As her expression grew increasingly tense and unpleasant, I placed both hands on the desk and spoke softly. “Supervisor Cui, I’d like to ask you something. You don’t have to answer—just nod or shake your head.”

“What if I refuse to cooperate?”

“Please don’t misunderstand. I’m merely discussing it with you. If you won’t cooperate, I’ll have to ask someone else. It may take some time to investigate, but I’ll find out eventually.”

Investigating openly, however, would mean that many people would learn that Cui Lu had leaked the information.

That was something she did not want to see.

Her compromise was entirely within my expectations.

“Go ahead.”

“Has Zhou Zhizi ever come to see you?”

The next second, I saw Cui Lu’s expression change slightly. A flicker of surprise crossed her face.

A moment later, she nodded.

Having obtained my answer, I straightened up. “Thank you. I won’t disturb your work any longer, Supervisor Cui.”

I left her office.

When I returned to the work area, I discovered that it was livelier than ever.

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Zhou Zhizi stood surrounded by everyone, smiling as she handed out cake, milk tea, and fruit. The others were grinning and showering her with compliments.

She waved shyly. “Don’t be so polite, everyone. Since you’re eating my cake today, I hope you’ll all get along well with Sister Yanyan. Don’t bully her, all right?”

“We know, we know. If you’d told us sooner that Mu Yan was your neighbor, we definitely would have treated her well.”

I narrowed my eyes.

Someone in the crowd noticed me.

“Mu Yan, you’re back! Come over quickly. Zhizi bought lots of delicious things for everyone!”

“That’s right, come have some.”

“She’s such a sweetheart. She even spoke up for you and reminded us not to bully you.”

Amid their overlapping voices, I walked over. The cakes on the table were all exquisitely packaged, with the logo of an expensive bakery printed on the bags.

“You went to a lot of trouble.”

“Not at all, Sister. Don’t mention it.”

Our eyes met, and sparks seemed to crackle between us.

The chattering crowd gradually fell silent.

Zhou Zhizi was the first to move. She slipped her arm around mine with great familiarity.

“Sister, don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone about your relationship with A-Yan. Otherwise, people might make wild guesses and upset him.”

“You simply don’t want anyone else to know.”

I asked just as quietly.

Zhou Zhizi pouted coquettishly. “How could you say that, Sister? You’ve misunderstood me. I only don’t want people gossiping about you and A-Yan. You know what his temper is like. If he gets angry, I’ll have to persuade him and coax him into making up with you again. It’s such a hassle.”

“Then I truly must thank you for your trouble.”

She was both reminding me and provoking me.

He was clearly my husband, yet in the end, even coaxing me required her encouragement.

Any woman would have been driven mad by that.

Zhou Zhizi’s visit today would not help me in the slightest. It would only make my situation worse.

She was sweet and adorable, and she had joined the company before me, already building friendly relationships with everyone.

As for me, I had never known how to bow my head and curry favor with others.

I preferred to be concise in both speech and action.

By comparison, her personality was far more likable than mine.

Recently, Zhou Zhizi had seemed to lose all restraint. Whenever she had the chance, she would come running to our department and mingle with everyone. Whenever she did, I would sit quietly to the side.

Then she would scamper over to me, making insinuations about how introverted and inarticulate I was...

I ignored her completely.

These were all tricks she had played in my previous life. Back then, I had desperately tried to change myself.

But I had forgotten that she was my exact opposite.

With such a dazzling example before me, no matter how much I changed, people would only think I was imitating her badly.

A clumsy imitation was worse than no imitation at all.

I would not make such a foolish mistake again.

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In the blink of an eye, I had been at the company for three days. I ignored the rumors in the department and my colleagues’ overt and covert attempts to exclude me, focusing only on completing the work they assigned.

No matter how trivial the task, I carried it out carefully.

Gradually, in their eyes, I seemed to have become a timid and weak person.

That evening, as I was preparing to leave, a group of people tied up bags of trash and placed them beside me.

There was so much of it that the smell was truly unpleasant.

“Could you take this downstairs for us?”

“I don’t want to come in tomorrow and smell garbage again.”

“The cleaning staff are taking leave these two days, and the supervisor told everyone to dispose of their own trash. But we’re really too busy and don’t have time, so we’ll have to trouble you.”

I looked at their faces.

They could easily have thrown the trash away on their way out, yet they had deliberately made me do it.

And they were not asking. They were ordering me.

As I watched them laughing and chatting while they walked away, I called out, “Hey.”

Several of them hesitated and turned around.

The colleagues nearby were watching us as well.

I picked up the bags from the floor. Together, they were surprisingly heavy. Then I turned around and held them out toward the group.

They all backed away, afraid of dirtying their clothes.

“What are you doing?”

“Dispose of your own trash.”

When they refused to take it, I simply let go.

The bags were flimsy, and their contents immediately spilled across the floor.

Garbage lay scattered everywhere.

“For heaven’s sake, even if you didn’t want to throw it away for us, you didn’t have to dump it all over the floor!” someone complained.

“Your bags were poorly made. Also, please don’t give me your trash again. I won’t dispose of it for you.”

I picked up my handbag and phone from the chair, then turned to leave.

Behind me came a provocative voice, clearly unwilling to let the matter go.

“It was just taking out the trash. Did you really have to make such a fuss?”

“You’re so petty!”

I stopped, then turned around unhurriedly. My gaze met that of the young man who had spoken.

“I’m willing to help my colleagues with things that are within my ability. That doesn’t mean I accept workplace bullying.”

The young man’s face flushed. “How is this workplace bullying? We only asked you to take out the trash. You’re making far too much of it!”

“On the first day, it was organizing files. On the second, buying coffee for you. On the third, printing documents. Today, it’s taking out the trash.”

And those were only the minor tasks.

Over the past few days, they had asked me to do countless things, all of them trivial and easy to overlook.

“May I ask whether I came here to work for the company, or to work for all of you?”